[Warning!] [Severe fluctuations detected in the Plane Rift!] [Target "Huyan Li" has arrived ahead of schedule!] [Arrival time: 24 hours from now!] [Arrival location: Target lock in progress...]
Lin Mo's expression changed.
Ning Rongrong had seen it too, and the color drained from her face.
But she bit her lip and finished what she'd been saying:
"We can use that pile of scrap to set traps. He's slow, so we'll use the terrain to keep him from catching us."
Lin Mo looked at her.
Her eyes were very bright—unnaturally bright.
She was forcing herself not to be afraid, holding on by sheer will.
He nodded. "All right."
Ning Rongrong looked at him and suddenly smiled.
It was a brief smile, but a genuine one.
Then she stood up and said:
"Then let's go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow... we still have a whole day."
Lin Mo nodded.
Ning Rongrong headed toward the inner room. At the doorway, she stopped and said without looking back:
"Um... good night."
"Good night," Lin Mo replied.
The door closed.
Lin Mo sat on the sofa, looking at the door, and suddenly remembered her smile.
And the way she'd clung to his sleeve as they walked back together.
He closed his eyes and silently calculated the time.
Twenty-four hours.
One day left.
Outside the window, neon lights still flickered.
Now and then, cars passed in the distance.
He slowly drifted off to sleep.
In his dream, he saw the giant covered in golden diamonds again.
But this time, a tiny figure stood beside him.
Seven-colored light illuminated the entire field of ruins.
Early the next morning, before the sky had fully brightened, Lin Mo woke up.
He hadn't woken naturally. A stabbing pain in his right eye had yanked him out of his dream. When he opened his eyes, a purple screen was already flickering in midair:
[Time until target "Huyan Li" arrives: 21 hours 37 minutes] [Suggestion: Make full use of the time remaining for targeted training]
Lin Mo stared at the words for a few seconds, then sat up.
His back and waist ached from sleeping on the sofa. He rubbed his neck and glanced toward the inner room. The door was shut, and there was no sound inside. Ning Rongrong probably hadn't woken up yet.
He stood up quietly and went to the bathroom to wash his face. His reflection looked all right, and the injuries Shi Nian had inflicted yesterday had mostly healed. The system's claim that it could "speed up recovery" seemed to be true.
After leaving the bathroom, he went into the kitchen and started making breakfast.
He kneaded the dough, chopped the filling, and wrapped the buns. Ning Rongrong had said last night that she wanted some. He'd learned how to make them from his grandmother when he was a child, and his skills were decent enough. He set the buns to steam, then cracked two eggs and chopped some scallions, planning to fry them in a moment.
As he worked, he heard soft footsteps behind him.
Lin Mo turned around and saw Ning Rongrong standing in the kitchen doorway, her hair a mess and her eyes not quite open. She looked as if she were still half asleep.
She was wearing an oversized T-shirt—Lin Mo's, which she'd somehow dug out of the wardrobe. The sleeves were so long they covered her hands, and the hem nearly reached her knees. Her slender legs were bare, her feet planted on the floor.
"That smells so good..." She squinted, sniffed, then noticed Lin Mo looking at her. After a moment, she glanced down at her clothes, and her face turned red.
"I... I sweated in my clothes yesterday, and they haven't dried after washing..." she explained, her voice growing quieter.
Lin Mo looked away and continued frying the eggs. "It'll be ready soon. Go wash your face."
Ning Rongrong murmured in agreement, turned, and hurried into the bathroom, shutting the door with a bang.
When she came out again, her hair was tied up, and droplets of water still clung to her face. She walked to the kitchen doorway, looked at the steamer and frying pan on the stove, and asked softly, "Buns?"
Lin Mo nodded and lifted the steamer lid. Steam billowed out. The plump white buns were packed together, giving off the mixed aroma of flour and meat filling.
Ning Rongrong's eyes lit up.
They ate breakfast at the coffee table. Ning Rongrong ate with great concentration, alternating between buns and eggs, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster's. When she got to her third bun, she suddenly stopped and looked at Lin Mo.
"Why aren't you eating?"
Lin Mo was drinking soy milk. "I'm fine just watching you eat."
Ning Rongrong froze for a moment, then her ears turned red again. She lowered her head and murmured, "Y-you should eat too. I can't finish all this."
Lin Mo smiled and picked up a bun.
After breakfast, the two of them went out again.
This time, they didn't take a taxi. Lin Mo took Ning Rongrong on the subway. It was her first time in a subway station. On the escalator, she stared at the steps moving rapidly beneath her feet and clutched Lin Mo's sleeve in alarm.
"What is this thing? It's moving!"
"An escalator. Just stand still. Don't move around."
Ning Rongrong clung to him until they reached the end of the escalator before letting go. The subway car was crowded, so she stayed close to Lin Mo, though her eyes couldn't help wandering everywhere. A girl sitting across from them was using her phone, swiping at the screen with her fingers. Ning Rongrong stared at her for a long time.
"What's that?"
"A phone. I showed you one yesterday."
"Why does hers light up?"
"Her phone is a good one."
Ning Rongrong pondered this, then suddenly asked in a small voice, "Will you buy me one?"
Lin Mo turned to look at her.
She hurriedly added, "I'm just asking! It's fine if you don't!"
Lin Mo thought for a moment. "After we deal with Huyan Li, I'll buy you one."
Ning Rongrong froze. Then the corners of her mouth lifted, but she forced them back down and pretended to casually look elsewhere.
Forty minutes later, the two of them were standing at the entrance to the ruins again.
In daylight, the ruins looked much less eerie. Sunlight fell across the rusty iron frames and abandoned factory buildings. The weeds were lush and green, rustling in the breeze. The pile of construction debris still stood in the middle of the site, just as it had yesterday.
But they both knew that in twenty hours, this place would become a battlefield.
Lin Mo walked up to the pile of debris and studied it carefully. He circled it twice, then started moving the larger chunks of concrete.
"What are you doing?" Ning Rongrong asked.
"Setting traps." Lin Mo didn't look back. "Huyan Li may be slow, but we'll make him even slower. We'll arrange these big chunks in several piles. He'll have to go around them while chasing us, and we can weave between them."
He moved a few pieces, then pointed at the rusted rebar. "These can be used as tripwires. He's strong enough that they won't knock him down, but they can still distract him."
Ning Rongrong nodded and began helping.
She wasn't strong enough to move the bigger pieces, so she picked up the smaller ones and tossed them aside, clearing several paths. Whenever she spotted a straight piece of rebar, she picked it up and set it with the others.
They worked all morning. By the time the sun was directly overhead, the pile of debris had become a maze. Several heaps of concrete blocks were scattered throughout it, with winding paths between them. They'd strung several tripwires across the ground with rebar, then deliberately covered them with broken bricks.
Lin Mo stood on a raised spot to survey the setup, adjusted a few positions, then jumped down and dusted off his hands.
"That should do it."
Exhausted, Ning Rongrong sat on a chunk of concrete and panted. "Will this really work?"
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